Just recently, the Lopez-owned media giant joined forces with Manny V. Pangilinan’s PLDT and Smart Communications for a game-changing agreement. Beginning in October, PLDT and Smart subscribers can now watch ABS-CBN shows anytime and anywhere through the iWant TV service.

Shows that air on ABS-CBN and its sister channels (e.g. S+A, ABS-CBN News Channel, DZMM TeleRadyo) are readily available on iWant TV. However, not all shows are free to watch, as some will still require an assigned fee to access.

Regardless, this is just another step in the right direction for ABS-CBN. As the network’s push for a more digital approach continues, one must wonder how will its competitors respond with this move.

GMA doesn’t have a cable provider of its own, which is why they joined forces with MVP’s Cignal. The fact is, Gozon’s company is more of a blocktimer in other parties; the most obvious example of which is their deal with iFlix, since they don’t have their own VOD service in the mold of iWant TV.

iWantv was available to anyone who is a Skycable subscribers way back, so even if their internet provider was either Sky, PLDT, Globe or Smart’s its fine and anyone can use it. It just recently where it became exclusive to Skycable/Skybroadband subscribers and ABS-CBN mobile subscribers.

Before it became primarily exclusive to Sky and ABS-CBN Mobile, iWant TV aired mostly foreign shows from various cable networks, hence its availability in any provider. They since moved those operations to SkyBroadband in order to focus more on local content. Some shows (e.g. more recent episodes of current shows) are still available for free, but most (e.g. classic shows, ANC & DZMM shows) are exclusive to ABS-CBN Mobile and Sky subscribers and it requires an additional fee to watch. That is until they joined forces with PLDT/Smart.

Huge business decision on the part of both companies. For ABS, it’s a way to expand the product to more subscribers who don’t use ABS-M and Sky. And for PLDT-Smart, they treated the latter as the likes of Netflix and IFlix.